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THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 


BY 


HENRY  CABOT   LODGE 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

MCMXIX 


FIVE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-FIVE 
COPIES  OF  THIS  BOOK  WERE  PRINTED 
AT  THE  RIVERSIDE  PRESS  AT  CAM 
BRIDGE,  IN  MARCH,  1919,  OF  WHICH 
FIVE  HUNDRED,  AUTOGRAPHED  BY 
THE  AUTHOR,  ARE  FOR  SALE. 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT*  A  MEMORIAL 

A  tower  is  fallen,  a  star  is  set !  Alas !  Alas !  for  Celin. 

The  words  of  lamentation  from  the  old  Moorish  baL 
lad,  which  in  boyhood  we  used  to  recite,  must,  I  think, 
have  risen  to  many  lips  when  the  world  was  told  that 
Theodore  Roosevelt  was  dead.  But  whatever  the 
phrase  the  thought  was  instant  and  everywhere.  Va- 
riously  expressed,  you  heard  it  in  the  crowds  about 
the  bulletin  boards,  from  the  man  in  the  street  and 
the  man  on  the  railroads,  from  the  farmer  in  the 
fields,  the  women  in  the  shops,  in  the  factories,  and  in 
the  homes.  The  pulpit  found  in  his  life  a  text  for 
sermons.  The  judge  on  the  bench,  the  child  at  school, 
alike  paused  for  a  moment,  conscious  of  a  loss.  The 
cry  of  sorrow  came  from  men  and  women  of  all  con^ 
ditions,high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  from  the  learned 
and  the  ignorant,  from  the  multitude  who  had  loved 
and  followed  him,  and  from  those  who  had  opposed 
and  resisted  him.  The  newspapers  pushed  aside  the  ab^ 
sorbing  reports  of  the  events  of  these  fateful  days  and 
gave  pages  to  the  man  who  had  died.  Flashed  beneath 
the  ocean  and  through  the  air  went  the  announcement 
of  his  death,  and  back  came  a  world-wide  response 
from  courts  and  cabinets,  from  press  and  people,  in 
other  and  far^distant  lands.  Through  it  all  ran  agolcU 
en  thread  of  personal  feeling  which  gleams  so  rare^ 
ly  in  the  sombre  formalism  of  public  grief.  Every' 
where  the  people  felt  in  their  hearts  that 

A  power  was  passing  from  the  Earth 
To  breathless  Nature's  dark  abyss. 


M13439V 


4  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

It  would  seem  that  here  was  a  man,  a  private  citi- 
zen,  conspicuous  by  no  office,  with  no  glitter  of  pow- 
er  about  him,  no  ability  to  reward  or  punish,  gone 
from  the  earthly  life,  who  must  have  been  unusual 
even  among  the  leaders  of  men,  and  who  thus  de^ 
mands  our  serious  consideration. 

This  is  a  thought  to  be  borne  in  mind  to-day. 
\Ve  meet  to  render  honor  to  the  dead,  to  the  great 
American  whom  we  mourn.  But  there  is  something 
more  to  be  done.  We  must  remember  that  when  His 
tory,  with  steady  hand  and  calm  eyes,  free  from  the 
passions  of  the  past,  comes  to  make  up  the  final  ac 
count,  she  will  call  as  her  principal  witnesses  the  con 
temporaries  of  the  man  or  the  event  awaiting  her  ver 
dict.  Here  and  elsewhere  the  men  and  women  who 
knew  Theodore  Roosevelt  or  who  belong  to  his  pe 
riod  will  give  public  utterance  to  their  emotions  and 
to  their  judgments  in  regard  to  him.  This  will  be  part 
of  the  record  to  which  the  historian  will  turn  when 
our  living  present  has  become  the  past,  of  which  it  is 
his  duty  to  write.  Thus  is  there  a  responsibility  placed 
upon  each  one  of  us  who  will  clearly  realize  that  here, 
too,  is  a  duty  to  posterity,  whom  we  would  fain  guide 
to  the  truth  as  we  see  it,  and  to  whose  hands  we  com 
mit  our  share  in  the  history  of  our  beloved  country 
—  that  history  so  much  of  which  was  made  under  his 
leadership. 

We  cannot  approach  Theodore  Roosevelt  along 
the  beaten  paths  of  eulogy  or  satisfy  ourselves  with 
the  empty  civilities  of  common  place  funereal  tributes, 
for  he  did  not  make  his  life  journey  over  main -trav 
elled  roads,  nor  was  he  ever  commonplace.  Cold  and 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  5 

pompous  formalities  would  be  unsuited  to  him  who 
was  devoid  of  affectation,  who  was  never  self-con- 
scious,and  to  whom  posturing  to  draw  the  public  gaze 
seemed  not  only  repellent  but  vulgar.  He  had  that  en- 
tire  simplicity  of  manners  and  modes  of  life  which  is 
the  crowning  result  of  the  highest  culture  and  the  finest 
nature.  Like  Cromwell,  he  would  always  have  said: 
"Paint  me  as  I  am/'  In  that  spirit,  in  his  spirit  of  de- 
votionto  truth's  simplicity,  I  shall  try  to  speak  of  him 
to-day  in  the  presence  of  the  representatives  of  the 
great  Government  of  which  he  was  for  seven  years 
the  head. 

The  rise  of  any  man  from  humble  or  still  more 
from  sordid  beginnings  to  the  heights  of  success  al- 
ways  and  naturally  appeals  strongly  to  the  imagina 
tion.  It  furnishes  a  vivid  contrast  which  is  as  much 
admired  as  it  is  readily  understood.  It  still  retains  the 
wonder  which  such  success  awakened  in  the  days  of 
hereditary  lawgivers  and  high  privileges  of  birth. 
Fortune  and  birth,  however,  mean  much  less  now 
than  two  centuries  ago.  To  climb  from  the  place  of 
a  printer's  boy  to  the  highest  rank  in  science,  politics, 
and  diplomacy  would  be  far  easier  to-day  than  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  given  a  genius  like  Franklin  to 
do  it.  Moreover,  the  real  marvel  is  in  the  soaring 
achievement  itself,  no  matter  what  the  origin  of  the 
man  who  comes  by  "  the  people's  unbought  grace  to 
rule  his  native  land,"  and  who  on  descending  from 
the  official  pinnacle  still  leads  and  influences  thou- 
sands  upon  thousands  of  his  fellow  men. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  had  the  good  fortune  to  be 
born  of  a  well-known,  long-established  family,  with 


6  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

every  facility  for  education  and  with  an  atmosphere 
of  patriotism  and  disinterested  service  both  to  coun- 
try  and  humanity  all  about  him.  In  his  father  he  had 
before  him  an  example  of  lofty  public  spirit,  from 
which  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  depart.  But  if 
the  work  of  his  ancestors  relieved  him  from  the  hard 
struggle  which  meets  an  unaided  man  at  the  outset, 
he  also  lacked  the  spur  of  necessity  to  prick  the  sides 
of  his  intent,  in  itself  no  small  loss.  As  a  balance  to  the 
opportunity  which  was  his  without  labor,  he  had  not 
only  the  later  difficulties  which  come  to  him  to  whom 
fate  had  been  kind  at  the  start ;  he  had  also  spread 
before  him  the  temptations  inseparable  from  such 
inherited  advantages  as  fell  to  his  lot  —  temptations 
to  a  life  of  sports  and  pleasure,  to  lettered  ease,  to  an 
amateur's  career  in  one  of  the  fine  arts,  perhaps  to 
a  money-making  business,  likewise  an  inheritance, 
none  of  them  easily  to  be  set  aside  to  obedience  to 
the  stern  rule  that  the  larger  and  more  facile  the 
opportunity  the  greater  and  more  insistent  the  respon 
sibility.  How  he  refused  to  tread  the  pleasant  paths 
that  opened  to  him  on  all  sides  and  took  the  instant 
way  which  led  over  the  rough  road  of  toil  and  action, 
his  life  discloses. 

At  the  beginning,  moreover,  he  had  physical  diffix 
culties  not  lightly  to  be  overcome.  He  was  a  delicate 
child,  suffering  acutely  from  attacks  of  asthma.  He 
was  not  a  strong  boy,  was  retiring,  fond  of  books,  and 
with  an  intense  but  solitary  devotion  to  natural  his 
tory.  As  his  health  gradually  improved,  he  became 
possessed  by  the  belief,  although  he  perhaps  did  not 
then  formulate  it,  that  in  the  fields  of  active  life  a  man 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  7 

could  do  that  which  he  willed  to  do;  and  this  faith  was 
with  him  to  the  end.  It  became  very  evident  when  he 
went  to  Harvard.  He  made  himself  an  athlete  by  sheer 
hard  work.  Hampered  by  extreme  near-sightedness, 
he  became  none  the  less  a  formidable  boxer  and  an 
excellent  shot.  He  stood  high  in  scholarship,  but  as 
he  worked  hard,  so  he  played  hard,  and  was  popular 
in  the  university  and  beloved  by  his  friends.  For  a 
shy  and  delicate  boy  all  this  meant  solid  achievement, 
as  well  as  unusual  determination  and  force  of  will. 
Apparently  he  took  early  to  heart  and  carried  out  to 
fulfilment  the  noble  lines  of  Clough's  Dipsychus: 

In  light  things 

Prove  thou  the  arms  thou  long'st  to  glorify, 
Nor  fear  to  work  up  from  the  lowest  ranks 
Whence  come  great  Nature's  Captains.  And  high  deeds 
Haunt  not  the  fringy  edges  of  the  fight, 
But  the  pell-mell  of  men. 

When  a  young  man  comes  out  of  college  he  de- 
scends  suddenly  from  the  highest  place  in  a  lit  tie  world 
to  a  very  obscure  corner  in  a  great  one.  It  is  something 
of  a  shock,  and  there  is  apt  to  be  a  chill  in  the  air. 
Unless  theyoung  man's  life  has  been  planned  before 
hand  and  a  place  provided  for  him  by  others,  which 
is  exceptional,  or  unless  he  is  fortunate  in  a  strong 
and  dominating  purpose  or  talent  which  drives  him 
to  science  or  art  or  some  particular  profession,  he  finds 
himself  at  this  period  pausing  and  wondering  where 
he  can  get  a  grip  upon  the  vast  and  confused  world 
into  which  he  has  been  plunged. 

It  is  a  trying  and  only  too  frequently  a  dishearten 
ing  experience,  this  looking  for  a  career,  this  effort  to 


8  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

find  employment  in  ahugeand  hurryingcrowd  which 
appears  to  have  no  use  for  the  newcomer.  Roosevelt, 
thus  cast  forth  on  his  own  resources,  his  father,  so  be^ 
loved  by  him,  having  died  two  years  before,  fell  to 
work  at  once,  turning  to  the  study  of  the  law,  which 
he  did  not  like,  and  to  the  completion  of  a  history  of 
the  War  of  1 8 1 2  which  he  had  begun  while  still  in 
college.  With  few  exceptions,  young  beginners  in  the 
difficult  art  of  writing  are  either  too  exuberant  or  too 
dry.  Roosevelt  said  that  his  book  was  as  dry  as  an 
encyclopaedia,  thus  erring  in  precisely  the  direction 
one  would  not  have  expected.  The  book,  be  it  said,  was 
by  no  means  so  dry  as  he  thought  it,  and  it  had  some 
other  admirable  qualities.  It  was  clear  and  thorough, 
and  the  battles  by  sea  and  land,  especially  the  former, 
which  involved  the  armaments  and  crews,  the  size  and 
speed  of  the  ships  engaged  in  the  famous  frigate  and 
sloop  actions,  of  which  we  won  eleven  out  of  thirteen, 
were  given  with  a  minute  accuracy  never  before  at' 
tempted  in  the  accounts  of  this  war,  and  which  made 
the  book  an  authority,  a  position  it  holds  to  this  day. 
This  was  agooddeal  of  sound  work  for  a  boy's  first 
year  out  of  college.  But  it  did  not  content  Roosevelt. 
Inherited  influences  and  inborn  desires  made  him  ear^ 
nest  and  eager  to  render  some  public  service.  In  pur^ 
suit  of  this  aspiration  he  joined  the  Twenty 'first  As^ 
sembly  District  Republican  Association  of  the  city  of 
New  York,  for  by  such  machinery  all  politics  were 
carried  on  in  thosedays.  It  was  not  an  association  conv 
posed  of  his  normal  friends;  in  fact,  the  members  were 
not  only  eminently  practical  persons,  but  they  were 
inclined  to  be  rough  in  their  methods.  They  were  not 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  9 

dreamers,  nor  were  they  laboring  under  many  illu 
sions.  Roosevelt  went  among  them  a  complete  stran 
ger.  He  differed  from  them  with  en  tire  frankness,  con 
cealed  nothing,  and  by  his  strong  and  simple  demo 
cratic  ways,  his  intense  Americanism,  and  the  magical 
personal  attraction  which  went  with  him  to  the  end, 
made  some  devoted  friends.  One  of  the  younger  lead 
ers,  "Joe"  Murray,  believed  in  him,  became  especially 
attached  to  him,  and  so  continued  until  death  separated 
them.  Through  Murray 's  efforts  he  was  elected  to  the 
New  York  Assembly  in  1881,  and  thus  only  one 
year  after  leaving  college  his  public  career  began.  He 
was  just  twenty-three. 

Very  few  men  make  an  effective  State  reputation 
in  their  first  year  in  the  lower  branch  of  the  State  legis 
lature.  I  never  happened  to  hear  of  one  who  made  a  na 
tional  reputation  in  such  a  body.  Roosevelt  did  both. 
When  he  left  the  assembly  after  three  years'  service  he 
was  a  national  figure,  well  known,  and  of  real  impor 
tance,  and  also  a  delegate  at  large  from  the  great  State  of 
New  York  to  the  Republican  national  convention  of 
i  8  84,  where  he  played  a  leading  part.  Energy,  ability, 
and  the  most  entire  courage  were  the  secret  of  his  extra 
ordinary  success.  It  was  a  time  of  flagrant  corporate 
influence  in  the  New  York  Legislature,  of  the  "Black 
Horse  Cavalry ,"  of  a  group  of  members  who  made 
money  by  sustaining  corporation  measures  or  by  levy 
ing  on  corporations  and  capital  through  the  familiar 
artifice  of  "strike  bills."  Roosevelt  attacked  them  all 
openly  and  aggressively  and  never  silently  or  quietly. 
He  fought  for  the  impeachment  of  a  judge  solely  be 
cause  he  believed  the  judge  corrupt,  which  surprised 


10         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

some  of  his  political  associates  of  both  parties,  there 
being,  as  one  practical  thinker  observed,  "no politics  in 
politics/'  He  failed  to  secure  the  impeachment,  but  the 
fight  did  not  fail,  nor  did  the  people  forget  it;  and  de- 
spite — perhaps  because  of — the  enemies  he  made,  he 
was  twice  re-elected.  He  became  at  the  same  time  a 
distinct,  well-defined  figure  to  the  American  people. 
He  had  touched  the  popular  imagination.  In  this  way 
he  performed  the  unexampled  feat  of  leaving  the  New 
York  Assembly,  which  he  had  entered  three  years  be 
fore  an  unknown  boy,  with  a  national  reputation  and 
with  his  name  at  least  known  throughout  the  United 
States.  He  was  twenty-six  years  old. 

\Vhen  he  left  Chicago  at  the  close  of  the  national 
convention  in  June,  j 8  84,  he  did  not  return  to  New 
York,  but  went  West  to  the  Bad  Lands  of  the  Little 
Missouri  Valley,  where  he  had  purchased  a  ranch  in 
the  previous  year.  The  early  love  of  natural  history 
which  never  abated  had  developed  into  a  passion  for 
hunting  and  for  life  in  the  open.  He  had  begun  in  the 
wilds  of  Maine  and  then  turned  to  theWest  and  to  a 
cattle  ranch  to  gratify  both  tastes.  The  life  appealed  to 
him  and  became  to  love  it.  He  herded  and  rounded  up 
his  cattle,  he  worked  as  a  cow-puncher,  only  rather 
harder  than  any  of  them,  and  in  the  intervals  he  hunted 
and  shot  big  game.  He  alsocame  in  contact  with  men  of 
a  new  type,  rough,  sometimes  dangerous,  but  always 
vigorous  and  often  picturesque  .With  them  he  had  the 
same  success  as  with  the  practical  politicians  of  the 
Twenty-first  Assembly  District,  although  they  were 
widely  different  specimens  of  mankind.  But  all  alike 
were  human  at  bottom  and  so  was  Roosevelt.  He  ar- 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT          n 

gued  with  them,  rode  with  them,  camped  with  them, 
played  and  joked  with  them,  but  was  always  master 
of  his  outfit.  They  respected  him  and  also  liked  him, 
because  he  was  at  all  times  simple,  straightforward, 
outspoken,  and  sincere.  He  became  apopularand  well' 
known  figure  in  that  Western  country  and  was  regard' 
ed  as  a  good  fellow,  a  "white  man,"  entirely  fearless, 
thoroughly  good-natured  and  kind,  never  quarrel- 
some,  and  never  safe  to  trifle  with,  bully,  or  threaten. 
The  life  and  experiences  of  that  time  found  their  way 
into  a  book,  "The  Hunting  Trips  of  a  Ranchman/' 
interesting  in  description  and  adventure  and  also 
showing  marked  literary  quality. 

In  18  86  he  ran  as  Republican  candidate  for  mayor 
of  New  York  and  might  have  been  elected  had  his 
own  party  stood  by  him.  But  many  excellent  men  of 
Republican  faith  —  the  "timid  good"  as  he  called 
them — panic-stricken  by  the  formidable  candidacy 
of  Henry  George,  flocked  to  the  support  of  Mr.  Abram 
Hewitt,  the  Democratic  candidate,  as  the  man  most 
certain  to  defeat  the  menacing  champion  of  single  tax- 
ation.  Roosevelt  was  beaten,  but  his  campaign,  which 
wasentirely  his  own  and  the  precursor  of  many  others, 
his  speeches  with  their  striking  quality  then  visible  to 
the  country  for  the  first  time,  all  combined  to  fix  the 
attention  of  the  people  upon  the  man  who  had  lost 
the  election.  Roosevelt  was  the  one  of  the  candidates 
who  was  most  interesting,  and  again  he  had  touched 
the  imagination  of  the  people  and  cut  a  little  deeper 
into  the  popular  consciousness  and  memory. 

Two  years  more  of  private  life,  devoted  to  his  home, 
where  his  greatest  happiness  was  always  found,  to  his 


12         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ranch,  to  reading  and  writing  books,  and  then  came 
an  active  part  in  the  campaign  of  1888,  resulting  in 
the  election  of  President  Harrison,  who  made  him 
Civil-Service  Commissioner  in  the  spring  of  1889. 
He  was  in  his  thirty-first  year.  Civil-service  reform 
as  a  practical  question  was  then  in  its  initial  stages. 
The  law  establishing  it,  limited  in  extent  and  forced 
through  by  a  few  leaders  of  both  parties  in  the  Sen 
ate,  was  only  six  years  old.  The  promoters  of  the  re 
form,  strong  in  quality,  but  weak  in  numbers,  had 
compelled  a  reluctant  acceptance  of  the  law  by  exer 
cising  a  balance-of-power  vote  in  certain  States  and 
districts.  It  had  few  earnest  supporters  in  Congress, 
some  lukewarm  friends,  and  many  strong  opponents. 
All  the  active  politicians  were  practically  against  it. 
Mr.  Conkling  had  said  that  when  Dr.  Johnson  told 
Boswell  "  that  patriotism  was  the  last  refuge  of  a 
scoundrel,"  he  was  ignorant  of  the  possibilities  of  the 
word  "  reform,"  and  this  witticism  met  with  a  large 
response. 

Civil-service  reform,  meaning  the  establishment  of 
a  classified  service  and  the  removal  of  routine  admin 
istrative  offices  from  politics,  had  not  reached  the 
masses  of  the  people  at  all.  The  average  voter  knew 
and  cared  nothing  about  it.  When  six  years  later 
Roosevelt  resigned  from  the  commission  the  great 
body  of  the  people  knew  well  what  civil-service  re 
form  meant,  large  bodies  of  voters  cared  a  great  deal 
about  it,  and  it  was  established  and  spreading  its  con 
trol.  We  have  had  many  excellent  men  who  have 
done  good  work  in  the  Civil-Service  Commission,  al 
though  that  work  is  neither  adventurous  nor  exciting 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT          13 

and  rarely  at  tracts  public  attention,  but  no  onehas  ever 
forgotten  that  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  once  Civil- 
Service  Commissioner. 

He  found  thelaw  strugglingfor  existence,  laughed 
at,  sneered  at,  surrounded  by  enemies  in  Congress,  and 
with  but  few  fighting  friends.  He  threw  himself  into 
the  fray.  Congress  investigated  the  commission  about 
once  a  year,  which  was  exactly  what  Roosevelt  de 
sired.  Annually,  too,  the  opponents  of  the  reform 
would  try  to  defeat  the  appropriation  for  the  commis 
sion,  and  this  again  was  playing  into  Roosevelt's 
hands,  for  it  led  to  debates,  and  the  newspapers  as  a 
rule  sustained  the  reform.  Senator  Gorman  mourned 
in  the  Senate  over  the  cruel  fate  of  a  "bright  young 
man  "  who  was  unable  to  tell  on  examination  the  dis 
tance  of  Baltimore  from  China,  and  thus  was  deprived 
of  his  inalienable  right  to  serve  his  country  in  the  post- 
office.  Roosevelt  proved  that  no  such  question  had 
ever  been  asked  and  requested  the  name  of  the  "bright 
young  man."  The  name  was  not  forthcoming,  and 
the  victim  of  a  question  never  asked  goes  down  name 
less  to  posterity  in  the  Congressional  Record  as  merely 
a  "bright  young  man."  Then  General  Grosvenor,  a 
leading  Republican  of  the  House,  denounced  the  com 
missioner  for  crediting  his  district  with  an  appointee 
named  Rufus  Putnam  who  was  not  a  resident  of  the 
district, and  Roosevelt  produced  aletter  from  the  gen 
eral  recommending  Rufus  Putnam  as  a  resident  of 
his  district  and  a  constituent.  All  this  was  unusual. 
Hitherto  it  had  been  a  safe  amusement  to  ridicule  and 
jeer  at  civil-service  reform,  and  here  was  a  commis 
sioner  who  dared  to  reply  vigorously  to  attacks,  and 


14         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

even  to  prove  Senators  and  Congressmen  to  be  wrong 
in  their  facts.  The  amusement  of  baiting  the  Civil" 
Service  Commission  seemed  to  be  less  inviting  than  be- 
fore,  and,  worse  still,  the  entertaining  features  seemed 
to  have  passed  to  the  public,  who  enjoyed  and  approved 
the  commissioner  who  disregarded  etiquette  and  fought 
hard  for  the  law  he  was  appointed  to  enforce.  The  law 
suddenly  took  on  new  meaning  and  became  clearly 
visible  in  the  public  mind,  a  great  service  to  the  cause 
of  good  government. 

After  six  years'  service  in  the  Civil-Service  Conv 
mission  Roosevelt  left  Washington  to  accept  the  posi' 
tion  of  president  of  the  Board  of  Police  Commission- 
ers  of  the  city  of  New  York,  which  had  been  offered 
to  him  by  Mayor  Strong.  It  is  speaking  within  bounds 
to  say  that  the  history  of  the  police  force  of  New 
York  has  been  a  checkered  one  in  which  the  black 
squares  have  tended  to  predominate.  The  task  which 
Roosevelt  confronted  was  then,  as  always,  difficult, 
and  the  machinery  of  four  commissioners  and  a  prac- 
tically  irremovable  chief  made  action  extremely  slow 
and  uncertain.  Roosevelt  set  himself  to  expel  politics 
and  favoritism  in  appointments  and  promotions  and 
to  crush  corruption  everywhere.  In  some  way  he 
drove  through  the  obstacles  and  effected  great  im 
provements,  although  permanent  betterment  was 
perhaps  impossible.  Good  men  were  appointed  and 
meritorious  men  promoted  as  never  before,  while  the 
corrupt  and  dangerous  officers  were  punished  in  a 
number  of  instances  sufficient,  at  least,  to  check  and 
discourage  evildoers.  Discipline  was  improved,  and 
the  force  became  very  loyal  to  the  Chief  Commis- 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT          15 

sioner,  because  they  learned  to  realize  that  he  was 
fighting  for  right  and  justice  without  fear  or  favor. 
The  results  were  also  shown  in  the  marked  decrease 
of  crime,  which  judges  pointed  out  from  the  bench. 
Then,  too,  it  was  to  be  observed  that  a  New  York  Po 
lice  Commissioner  suddenly  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  country.  The  work  which  was  being  done  by 
Roosevelt  in  New  York,  his  midnight  walks  through 
the  worst  quarters  of  the  great  city,  to  see  whether  the 
guardians  of  the  peace  did  their  duty,  which  made  the 
newspapers  compare  him  to  Haroun  Al  Raschid,  all 
appealed  to  the  popular  imagination.  A  purely  local 
office  became  national  in  his  hands,  and  his  picture 
appeared  in  the  shops  of  European  cities.  There  was 
something  more  than  vigor  and  picturesqueness  nec- 
essary  to  explain  these  phenomena.  The  truth  is  that 
Roosevelt  was  really  laboring  through  a  welter  of  de 
tails  to  carry  out  certain  general  principles  which  went 
to  the  very  roots  of  society  and  government.  He 
wished  the  municipal  administration  to  be  something 
far  greater  than  a  business  man's  administration, 
which  was  the  demand  that  had  triumphed  at  the 
polls.  He  wanted  to  make  it  an  administration  of 
the  workingmen,  of  the  dwellers  in  the  tenements,  of 
the  poverty  and  suffering  which  haunted  the  back 
streets  and  hidden  purlieus  of  the  huge  city.  The  peo 
ple  did  not  formulate  these  purposes  as  they  watched 
what  he  was  doing,  but  they  felt  them  and  understood 
them  by  that  instinct  which  is  often  so  keen  in  vast 
bodies  of  men.  The  man  who  was  toiling  in  the  seem 
ing  obscurity  of  the  New  York  Police  Commission 
again  became  very  distinct  to  his  fellow  countrymen 


16          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

and  deepened  their  consciousness  of  his  existence  and 
their  comprehension  of  his  purposes  and  aspirations. 

Striking  as  was  the  effect  of  this  police  work,  it  only 
lasted  for  two  years.  In  1 8  9  7  he  was  offered  by  Presi- 
dent  McKinley ,  whom  he  had  energetically  supported 
in  the  preceding  campaign,  the  position  of  Assistant 
Secretary  of  the  Navy.  He  accepted  at  once,  for  the 
place  and  the  work  both  appealed  to  him  most 
strongly.  The  opportunity  did  not  come  without  re- 
sistance.  The  President,  an  old  friend,  liked  him  and 
believed  in  him,  but  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  had 
doubts,  and  also  fears  that  Roosevelt  might  be  a  dis- 
turbing  and  restless  assistant.  There  were  many  poli 
ticians,  too,  especially  in  his  own  State,  whom  his 
activities  as  Civil-Service  Police  Commissioner  did 
not  delight,  and  these  men  opposed  him.  But  his 
friends  were  powerful  and  devoted,  and  the  President 
appointed  him. 

His  new  place  had  to  him  a  peculiar  attraction.  He 
loved  the  Navy.  He  had  written  its  brilliant  history 
in  the  \Var  of  i  812.  He  had  done  all  in  his  power 
in  stimulating  public  opinion  to  support  the  "new 
Navy"  we  were  just  then  beginning  to  build.  That 
war  was  coming  with  Spain  he  had  no  doubt.  We 
were  unprepared,  of  course,  even  for  such  a  war  as  this, 
but  Roosevelt  set  himself  to  do  what  could  be  done. 
The  best  and  most  far-seeing  officers  rallied  round  him, 
but  the  opportunities  were  limited.  There  was  much 
in  detail  accomplished  which  cannot  be  described  here, 
but  two  acts  of  his  which  had  very  distinct  effect  upon 
the  fortunes  of  the  war  must  be  noted.  He  saw  very 
plainly — although  most  people  never  perceived  it  at 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT          17 

all  —  that  the  Philippines  would  be  a  vital  point  in 
any  war  with  Spain.  For  this  reason  it  was  highly 
important  to  have  the  right  man  in  command  of  the 
Asiatic  Squadron.  Roosevelt  was  satisfied  that  Dewey 
was  the  right  man,  and  that  his  rival  was  not.  He  set  to 
work  to  secure  the  place  for  Dewey.  Through  the  aid 
of  the  Senators  from  Dewey's  native  State  and  oth- 
ers,  he  succeeded.  Dewey  was  ordered  to  the  Asiatic 
Squadron.  Our  relations  with  Spain  grew  worse  and 
worse.  On  February  2  5, 1 89  8,  war  was  drawing  very 
near,  and  that  Saturday  afternoon  Roosevelt  hap 
pened  to  be  Acting  Secretary,  and  sent  out  the  follow- 
ing  cablegram : 

Dewey  —  Hongkong. 

Order  the  squadron,  except  the  Monocacy,  to  Hongkong. 
Keep  full  of  coal.  In  the  event  of  declaration  of  war,  Spain,  your 
duty  will  be  to  see  that  the  Spanish  Squadron  does  not  leave  the 
Asiatic  coast,  and  then  offensive  operations  in  the  Philippine  Is 
lands.  Keep  Olympia  until  further  orders. 

ROOSEVELT 

I  believe  he  was  never  again  permitted  to  be  Act 
ing  Secretary.  But  the  deed  was  done.  The  wise  word 
of  readiness  had  been  spoken  and  was  not  recalled. 
\Var  came,  and  as  April  closed,  Dewey,  all  prepared, 
slipped  out  of  Hongkong  and  on  May  i  st  fought  the 
battle  of  Manila  Bay. 

Roosevelt,  however,  did  not  continue  long  in  the 
Navy  Department.  Many  of  his  friends  felt  that  he 
was  doing  such  admirable  work  there  that  he  ought 
to  remain,  but  as  soon  as  war  was  declared  he  deter- 
mined  to  go,  and  his  resolution  was  not  to  be  shaken. 
Nothing  could  prevent  his  fighting  for  his  country 


i8          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

when  the  country  was  at  war.  Congress  had  author 
ized  three  volunteer  regiments  of  Cavalry,  and  the 
President  and  the  Secretary  of  War  gave  to  Leonard 
Wood — then  a  surgeon  in  the  Regular  Army — as 
colonel,  and  to  Theodore  Roosevelt,  as  lieutenant^ 
colonel,  authority  to  raise  one  of  these  regiments, 
known  officially  as  the  First  United  States  Volun- 
teer  Cavalry,  and  to  all  the  country  as  the  "Rough 
Riders/*  The  regimen  t  was  raised  chiefly  in  the  South' 
west  and  West,  where  Roosevelt's  popularity  and  rep 
utation  among  thecowboys  and  the  ranchmen  brought 
many  eager  recruits  to  serve  with  him.  After  the  regi- 
ment  had  been  organized  and  equipped  they  had  some 
difficulty  in  getting  to  Cuba,  but  Roosevelt  as  usual 
broke  through  all  obstacles,  and  finally  succeeded,  with 
Colonel  Wood,  in  getting  away  with  two  battalions, 
leaving  one  battalion  and  the  horses  behind. 

The  regiment  got  in  to  action  immediately  on  land 
ing  and  forced  its  way,  after  some  sharp  fighting  in 
the  jungle,  to  the  high  ground  on  which  were  placed 
the  fortifications  which  defended  the  approach  to  San- 
tiago.  Colonel  Wood  was  almost  immediately  given 
command  of  a  brigade,  and  this  left  Roosevelt  colonel 
of  the  regiment.  In  the  battle  which  ensued  and  which 
resulted  in  the  capture  of  the  positions  commanding 
Santiago  and  the  bay,  the  Rough  Riders  took  a  lead 
ing  part,  storming  one  of  the  San  Juan  heights,  which 
they  christened  Kettle  Hill,  with  Roosevelt  leading 
the  men  in  person.  It  was  a  dashing,  gallant  assault, 
well  led  and  thoroughly  successful.  Santiago  fell  after 
the  defeat  of  the  fleet,  and  then  followed  a  period  of 
sickness  and  suffering — the  latter  due  to  unreadiness 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT          19 

— where  Roosevelt  did  everything  with  his  usual 
driving  energy  to  save  his  men,  whose  loyalty  to  their 
colonel  went  with  them  through  life.  The  war  was 
soon  over,  but  brief  as  it  had  been  Roosevelt  and  his 
men  had  highly  distinguished  themselves,  and  he  stood 
out  in  the  popular  imagination  as  one  of  theconspio 
uous  figures  of  the  conflict.  He  brought  his  regiment 
back  to  the  United  States,  where  they  were  mustered 
out,  and  almost  immediately  afterwards  he  was  nonv 
inated  by  the  Republicans  as  their  candidate  for  Gov^ 
ernorof  the  State  of  New  York.  The  situation  in  New 
York  was  unfavorable  for  the  Republicans,  and  the 
younger  men  told  Senator  Platt,who  dominated  the 
organization  and  who  had  no  desire  for  Roosevelt, 
that  unless  he  was  nominated  they  could  not  win. 
Thus  forced,  the  organization  accepted  him,  and  it 
was  well  for  the  party  that  they  did  so.  The  campaign 
was  a  sharp  one  and  very  doubtful,  but  Roosevelt 
was  elected  by  a  narrow  margin  and  assumed  office 
at  the  beginning  of  the  new  year  of  1899.  He  was 
then  in  his  forty  'first  year. 

Many  problems  faced  him  and  none  were  evaded. 
He  was  well  aware  that  the  "organization"  under 
SenatorPlatt  would  not  like  many  things  he  was  sure 
to  do,  but  he  determined  that  he  would  have  neither 
personal  quarrels  nor  faction  fights.  He  knew,  being 
blessed  with  strong  common  sense,  that  the  Repub' 
lican  Party,  his  own  party,  was  the  instrument  by 
which  alone  he  could  attain  his  ends,  and  he  did  not 
intend  that  it  should  be  blunted  and  made  useless  by 
internal  strife.  And  yet  he  meant  to  have  his  own  way. 
It  was  a  difficult  role  which  he  undertook  to  play,  but 


20         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

he  succeeded.  He  had  many  differences  with  the  oi> 
ganization  managers,  but  he  declined  to  lose  his  tenv 
per  or  to  have  abreak,  and  he  also  refused  to  yield  when 
he  was  standing  for  the  right  and  a  principle  was  at 
stake.  Thus  he  prevailed.  He  won  on  the  canal  ques^ 
tion,  changed  the  Insurance  Commissioner,  and  car' 
ried  the  insurance  legislation  he  desired.  As  in  these 
cases,  so  it  was  in  lesser  things.  In  the  Police  Commis' 
sion  he  had  been  strongly  impressed  by  the  dangers 
as  he  saw  them  of  the  undue  and  often  sinister  influ^ 
ence  of  business,  finance,  and  great  money  interests 
upon  government  and  politics.  These  feelings  were 
deepened  and  broadened  by  his  experience  and  obser- 
vationon  the  larger  stage  of  State  administration.  The 
belief  that  political  equality  must  be  strengthened  and 
sustained  by  industrial  equality  and  a  larger  economic 
opportunity  was  constantly  in  his  thoughts  until  it  be- 
came  a  governing  and  guiding  principle. 

Meantime  he  grew  steadily  stronger  among  the 
people,  not  only  of  his  own  State  but  of  the  country, 
for  he  was  well  known  throughout  the  West,  and  there 
they  were  watching  eagerly  to  see  how  the  ranchman 
and  colonel  of  Rough  Riders,  who  had  touched  both 
their  hearts  and  their  imagination,  was  faring  asGov' 
ernor  of  New  York.  The  office  he  held  is  always  re- 
garded  as  related  to  the  presidency,  and  this,  joined  to 
his  striking  success  as  Governor,  brought  him  into  the 
presidential  field  wherever  men  speculated  about  the 
political  future.  It  was  universally  agreed  that  Me- 
Kinley  was  to  berenominated,  and  so  the  talk  turned 
to  making  Roosevelt  Vice-President.  A  friend  wrote 
to  him  in  the  summer  of  1 8  9  9  as  to  this  drift  of  opin- 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT         21 

ion,  then  assuming  serious  proportions.  "Do  not  at' 
tempt,"  he  said, "  to  thwart  the  popular  desire.  You  are 
notamannorare  your  close  friends  men  who  can  plan, 
arrange,  and  manage  you  into  office.  You  must  ac- 
cept  the  popular  wish,  whatever  it  is,  follow  your  star, 
and  let  the  future  care  for  itself.  It  is  the  tradition  of 
our  politics,  and  a  very  poor  tradition,  that  theVice- 
Presidency  is  a  shelf.  It  ought  to  be,  and  there  is  no 
reason  why  it  should  not  be,  a  stepping-stone.  Put  there 
by  the  popular  desire,  it  would  be  so  to  you."  This 
view,  quite  naturally,  did  not  commend  itself  to  Gov- 
ernor  Roosevelt  at  the  moment.  He  was  doing  valu- 
able  work  in  New  York;  he  was  deeply  engaged  in 
important  reforms  which  he  had  much  at  heart  and 
which  he  wished  to  carry  through ;  and  the  Vice-Presi- 
dency  did  not  at  trac^him.  A  year  later  he  was  at  Phila 
delphia,  a  delegate  at  large  from  his  State,  with  his 
mind  unchanged  as  to  the  Vice-Presidency,  while  his 
New  York  friends,  anxious  to  have  him  continue  his 
work  at  Albany,  were  urging  him  to  refuse.  Senator 
Platt,  for  obvious  reasons,  wished  to  make  him  Vice- 
President,  another  obstacle  to  his  taking  it.  Roosevelt 
forced  the  New  York  delegation  to  agree  on  some  one 
else  for  Vice-President,  but  he  could  not  hold  the  con 
vention,  nor  could  Senator  Hanna,  who  wisely  ac 
cepted  the  situation.  Governor  Roosevelt  was  nomi 
nated  on  the  first  ballot,  all  other  candidates  with 
drawing.  He  accepted  the  nomination,  little  as  he 
liked  it. 

Thus  when  it  came  to  the  point  he  instinctively  fol 
lowed  his  star  and  grasped  the  unvacillating  hand  of 
destiny.  Little  did  he  think  that  destiny  would  lead 


22         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

him  to  the  White  House  through  a  tragedy  which  cut 
him  to  the  heart.  He  was  on  a  mountain  in  the  Adi' 
rondacks  when  a  guide  made  his  way  to  him  across 
the  forest  with  a  telegram  telling  him  that  McKinley, 
the  wise,  the  kind,  the  gen  tie,  with  nothing  in  his  heart 
but  goodwill  to  all  men,  was  dying  from  a  wound  in 
flicted  by  an  anarchist  murderer,  and  that  the  Vice- 
President  must  come  to  Buffalo  at  once.  A  rapid  night 
drive  through  the  woods  and  a  special  train  brought 
him  to  Buffalo.  McKinley  was  dead  before  he  arrived, 
and  that  evening  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  sworn  in 
as  President  of  the  United  States. 

Within  the  narrow  limits  of  an  address  it  is  impos 
sible  to  give  an  account  of  an  administration  of  seven 
years  which  will  occupy  hundreds  of  pages  when  the 
history  of  the  United  States  during  that  period  is  writ 
ten.  It  was  a  memorable  administration,  memorable 
in  itself  and  not  by  the  accident  of  events,  and  large 
in  its  accomplishment.  It  began  with  a  surprise.  There 
were  persons  in  the  United  States  who  had  carefully 
cultivated,  and  many  people  who  had  accepted  with 
out  thought,  the  idea  that  Roosevelt  was  in  some  way 
a  dangerous  man.  They  gloomily  predicted  that  there 
would  be  a  violent  change  in  the  policies  and  in  the 
officers  of  the  McKinley  administration.  But  Roose 
velt  had  not  studied  the  history  of  his  country  in  vain. 
He  knew  that  in  three  of  the  four  cases  where  Vice- 
Presidents  had  succeeded  to  the  Presidency  through 
the  death  of  the  elected  President  their  coming  had  re 
sulted  in  a  violent  shifting  of  policies  and  men,  and, 
as  a  consequence,  in  most  injurious  dissensions,  which 
in  two  cases  at  least  proved  fatal  to  the  party  in  power. 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT         23 

In  all  four  instances  the  final  obliteration  of  the  Vice- 
President  who  had  reached  the  White  House  through 
the  death  of  his  chief  was  complete.  President  Roose 
velt  did  not  intend  to  permit  any  of  these  results.  As 
soon  as  he  came  into  office  he  announced  that  he  in 
tended  to  retain  President  McKinley's  Cabinet  and 
to  carry  out  his  policies,  which  had  been  sustained  at 
the  polls.  To  those  over-zealous  friends  who  suggested 
that  he  could  not  trust  the  appointees  of  President 
McKinley  and  that  he  would  be  but  a  pallid  imitation 
of  his  predecessor,  he  replied  that  he  thought,  in  any 
event,  the  administration  would  be  his,  and  that  if  new 
occasions  required  new  policies,  he  felt  that  he  could 
meet  them,  and  thatnoone  would  suspect  him  of  being 
a  pallid  imitation  of  anybody.  His  decision,  however, 
gratified  and  satisfied  the  country,  and  it  was  not  ap 
parent  that  Roosevelt  was  hampered  in  any  way  in 
carrying  out  his  own  policies  by  this  wise  refusal  to 
make  sudden  and  violent  changes. 

Those  who  were  alarmed  about  what  he  might  do 
had  also  suggested  that  with  his  combative  propensities 
he  was  likely  to  involve  the  country  in  war.  Yet  there 
never  has  been  an  administration,  as  afterwards  ap 
peared,  when  we  were  more  perfectly  at  peace  with  all 
the  world,  nor  were  our  foreign  relations  ever  in  danger 
of  producing  hostilities.  But  this  was  not  due  in  the 
least  to  the  adoption  of  a  timid  or  yielding  foreign  pol 
icy  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  owing  to  the  firmness  of  the 
President  in  all  foreign  questions  and  the  knowledge 
which  other  nations  soon  acquired  that  President 
Roosevelt  was  a  man  who  never  threatened  unless  he 
meant  to  carry  out  his  threat,  the  result  being  that  he 


24         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

was  not  obliged  to  threaten  at  all.  One  of  his  earliest 
successes  was  forcing  the  settlement  of  the  Alaskan 
boundary  question,  which  was  the  single  open  question 
with  Great  Britain  that  was  really  dangerous  and  con- 
tained  within  itself  possibilities  of  war.  The  acconv 
plishment  of  this  settlement  was  followed  later,  while 
Mr.  Root  was  Secretary  of  State,  by  the  arrangement 
of  all  our  outstanding  differences  with  Canada,  and 
during  Mr.  Root's  tenure  of  office  over  thirty  treaties 
were  made  with  different  nations,  including  a  nunv 
ber  of  practical  and  valuable  treaties  of  arbitration. 
When  Germany  started  to  take  ad  vantage  of  the  diffi- 
culties  in  Venezuela  the  affair  culminated  in  the  dis- 
patch  of  Dewey  and  the  fleet  to  the  Caribbean,  the 
withdrawal  of  England  at  once,  and  the  agreement 
of  Germany  to  the  reference  of  all  subjects  of  differ ' 
ence  to  arbitration,  It  was  President  Roosevelt  whose 
good  offices  brought  Russia  and  Japan  together  in  a 
negotiation  which  closed  the  war  between  those  two 
powers.  It  was  Roosevelt's  influence  which  contrib- 
uted  powerfully  to  settling  the  threatening  controversy 
between  Germany,  France,  and  England  in  regard  to 
Morocco,  by  the  Algeciras  Conference.  It  was  Roose 
velt  who  sent  the  American  fleet  of  battleships  round 
the  world,  one  of  the  most  convincing  peace  move^ 
ments  ever  made  on  behalf  of  the  United  States.  Thus 
it  came  to  pass  that  this  President,  dreaded  at  the  be 
ginning  on  account  of  his  combative  spirit,  received 
the  Nobel  Prize  in  1906  as  the  person  who  had  con 
tributed  most  to  the  peace  of  the  world  in  the  pre 
ceding  years,  and  his  contribution  was  the  result  of 
strength  and  knowledge  and  not  of  weakness. 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT         25 

At  home  he  recommended  to  Congress  legislation 
which  was  directed  toward  a  larger  control  of  the 
railroads  and  to  removing  the  privileges  and  curbing 
the  power  of  great  business  combinations  obtained 
through  rebates  and  preferential  freight  rates.  This 
legislation  led  to  opposition  in  Congress  and  to  much 
resistance  by  those  affected.  As  we  look  back,  this 
legislation,  so  much  contested  at  the  time,  seems  very 
moderate, but  it  was  none  the  less  momentous.  Presi 
dent  Roosevelt  never  believed  in  Government  owner 
ship,  but  he  was  thoroughly  in  favor  of  strong  and 
effective  Government  supervision  and  regulation  of 
what  are  now  known  generally  as  public  utilities.  He 
had  a  deep  conviction  that  the  political  influence  of 
financial  and  business  interests  and  of  great  combina 
tions  of  capital  had  become  so  powerful  that  the  Amer 
ican  people  were  beginning  to  distrust  their  own  Gov 
ernment,  than  which  there  could  be  no  greater  peril  to 
the  Republic.  By  his  measures  and  by  his  general  at 
titude  toward  capital  and  labor  both  he  sought  to  re 
store  and  maintain  the  confidence  of  the  people  in  the 
Government  they  had  themselves  created. 

In  the  Panama  Canal  he  left  the  most  enduring,  as  it 
was  the  most  visible,  monument  of  his  administration. 
Much  criticized  at  the  moment  for  his  action  in  regard 
to  it,  which  time  since  then  has  justified  and  which  his 
tory  will  praise,  the  great  fact  remains  that  the  canal 
is  there.  He  said  himself  that  he  made  up  his  mind 
that  it  was  his  duty  to  establish  the  canal  and  have  the 
debate  about  it  afterwards,  which  seemed  to  him  bet 
ter  than  to  begin  with  indefinite  debate  and  have  no 
canal  at  all.  This  is  a  view  which  posterity  both  at 
home  and  abroad  will  accept  and  approve. 


26          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

These,  passing  over  as  we  must  in  silence  many 
other  beneficent  acts,  are  only  a  few  of  the  most  salient 
features  of  his  administration,  stripped  of  all  detail 
and  all  enlargement.  Despite  the  conflicts  which  some 
of  his  domestic  policies  had  produced,  not  only  with 
his  political  opponents,  but  within  the  Republican 
ranks,  he  was  overwhelmingly  re-elected  in  1 9  04,  and 
when  the  seven  years  had  closed  the  country  gave  a 
like  majority  to  his  chosen  successor,  taken  from  his 
own  Cabinet.  On  the  4th  of  March,  1 9  09,  he  returned 
to  private  life  at  the  age  of  fifty,  having  been  the  young' 
est  President  known  to  our  history. 

During  the  brief  vacations  which  he  had  been  able 
to  secure  in  the  midst  of  the  intense  activities  of  his 
public  life  after  the  Spanish  \Var  he  had  turned  for 
enjoyment  to  expeditions  in  pursuit  of  big  game  in 
the  wildest  andmost  unsettled  regionsof  the  country. 
Open-air  life  and  all  its  accompanimentsof  riding  and 
hunting  were  to  him  the  one  thing  that  brought  him 
the  most  rest  and  relaxation.  Now,  having  left  the 
Presidency,  he  was  able  to  give  full  scope  to  the  love  of 
ad  venture,  which  had  been  strong  with  him  from  boy 
hood.  Soon  after  his  retirement  from  office  he  went  to 
Africa,  accompanied  by  a  scientific  expedition  sent  out 
by  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  He  landed  in  East 
Africa,  made  his  way  into  the  interior,  and  thence  to 
the  sources  of  the  Nile,  after  a  trip  in  every  way  suc 
cessful,  both  in  exploration  and  in  pursuit  of  big  game. 
He  then  came  down  the  Nile  through  Egypt  and 
thence  to  Europe,  and  no  private  citizen  of  the  United 
States  —  probably  no  private  man  of  any  country 
—  was  ever  received  in  a  manner  comparable  to 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT          27 

that  which  met  Roosevelt  in  every  country  in  Europe 
which  he  visited.  Everywhere  it  was  the  same — in 
Italy,  in  Germany,  in  France,  in  England.  Every  honor 
was  paid  to  him  that  authority  could  devise,  acconv 
panied  by  every  mark  of  affection  and  admiration 
which  the  people  of  those  countries  were  able  to  show. 
He  made  few  speeches  while  in  Europe,  but  in  those 
few  he  did  not  fail  to  give  to  the  questions  and  thought 
of  the  time  real  and  genuine  contributions,  set  forth  in 
plain  language,  always  vigorous  and  often  eloquent. 
He  returned  in  the  summer  of  1 9 1  o  to  the  United 
States  and  was  greeted  \vith  a  reception  on  his  landing 
in  New  York  quite  equalling  in  interest  and  enthusi' 
asm  that  which  had  been  accorded  to  him  in  Europe. 
For  two  years  afterwards  he  devoted  himself  to 
writing,  not  only  articles  as  contributing  editor  of  the 
"  Outlook/'  but  books  of  his  own  and  addresses  and 
speeches  which  he  was  constantly  called  upon  to  make. 
No  man  in  private  life  probably  ever  had  such  an  audi' 
ence  as  he  addressed,  whether  with  tongue  orpen,upon 
the  questions  of  the  day,  with  a  constant  refrain  as  to 
the  qualities  necessary  tomake  men  both  good  citizens 
and  good  Americans.  In  the  springof  1 912  he  decided 
to  become  a  candidate  for  the  Republican  nomination 
for  the  Presidency,  and  a  very  heated  struggle  followed 
bet  ween  himself and  President  Taft  for  delegations  to 
the  convention.  The  convention  when  it  assembled  in 
Chicago  was  the  stormiest  ever  known  in  our  history. , 
President  Taft  was  renominated,  most  of  theRoose^ 
velt  delegates  refusing  to  vote,  and  a  large  body  of  Re^ 
publicans  thereupon  formed  a  new  party  called  the 
"  Progressive  "  and  nominated  Mr.  Roosevelt  as  their 


28          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

candidate.  This  division  in  to  two  nearly  equal  parts  of 
the  Republican  Party,  which  had  elected  Mr.  Roose- 
velt  and  Mr.Taft  in  succession  by  the  largest  majori 
ties  ever  known,  made  the  victory  of  the  Democratic 
candidate  absolutely  certain.  Colonel  Roosevelt,  how 
ever,  stood  second  in  the  poll,  receiving  4,1 19,507 
votes,  carrying  six  States  and  winning  eighty-eight 
electoral  votes.  There  never  has  been  in  political  his 
tory,  when  all  conditions  are  considered,  such  an  exhi 
bition  of  extraordinary  personal  strength.  To  have  se 
cured  eighty-eight  electoral  votes  when  his  own  party 
was  hopelessly  divided,  with  no  great  historic  party 
name  and  tradition  behind  him,  with  an  organiza 
tion  which  had  to  be  hastily  brought  together  in  a  few 
weeks,  seems  almost  incredible,  and  in  all  his  career 
there  is  no  display  of  the  strength  of  his  hold  upon  the 
people  equal  to  this. 

In  the  following  year  he  yielded  again  to  the  longing 
for  ad  venture  and  exploration.  Going  to  South  Amer 
ica,  he  made  his  way  up  through  Paraguay  and  west 
ern  Brazil,  and  then  across  a  trackless  wilderness  of 
jungle  and  down  an  unknown  river  into  the  Valley 
of  the  Amazon.  It  was  a  remarkable  expedition  and 
carried  him  through  what  is  probaby  the  most  deadly 
climate  in  the  world.  He  suffered  severely  from  the 
climatic  fever,  the  poison  of  which  never  left  him  and 
which  finally  shortened  his  life. 

In  the  next  year  the  Great  War  began,  and  Colonel 
Roosevelt  threw  himself  into  it  with  all  the  energy 
of  his  nature.  With  Major  Gardner  he  led  the  great 
fight  for  preparedness  in  a  country  utterly  unprepared. 
He  saw  very  plainly  that  in  all  human  probability  it 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT         29 

would  be  impossible  for  us  to  keep  out  of  the  war. 
Therefore  in  season  and  out  of  season  he  demanded 
that  we  should  make  ready.  He  and  Major  Gardner, 
with  the  others  who  joined  them,  roused  a  widespread 
and  powerful  sentiment  in  the  country, but  there  was 
no  practical  effect  upon  the  Army.  The  Navy  was  the 
single  place  where  anything  was  really  done,  and  that 
only  in  the  bill  of  1 9 1 6,  so  that  war  finally  came  upon 
us  as  unready  as  Roosevelt  had  feared  we  should  be. 
Yet  the  campaign  he  made  was  not  in  vain,  for  in  addi' 
tion  to  the  question  of  preparation  he  spoke  earnestly 
of  other  things,  other  burning  questions,  and  he  always 
spoke  to  an  enormous  body  of  listeners  everywhere.  He 
would  have  had  us  protest  and  take  action  at  the  very 
beginning,  in  1 9 1 4,  when  Belgium  was  invaded.  He 
would  have  had  us  go  to  war  when  the  murders  of  the 
Lusitania  wereperpetrated.  He  tried  to  stir  the  soul  and 
rouse  the  spirit  of  the  American  people,  and  despite 
every  obstacle  he  did  awaken  them,  so  that  when  the 
hour  came,  in  April,  1 9 1 7,  a  large  proportion  of  the 
American  people  were  even  then  ready  in  spirit  and  in 
hope.  How  telling  his  work  had  been  was  proved  by  the 
confession  of  his  country's  enemies,  for  when  he  died 
the  only  discordant  note,  the  only  harsh  words,  came 
from  the  German  press.  Germany  knew  whose  voice 
it  was  that  more  powerfully  than  any  other  had  called 
Americans  to  the  battle  in  behalf  of  freedom  and  civi' 
lization,  where  the  advent  of  the  armies  of  the  Unit' 
ed  States  gave  victory  to  the  cause  of  justice  and  right" 
eousness. 

When  the  United  States  went  to  war  Colonel 
Roosevelt's  one  desire  was  to  be  allowed  to  go  to  the 


3o         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

fighting  line.  There  if  fate  had  laid  its  hand  upon  him 
it  would  have  found  him  glad  to  fall  in  the  trenches 
or  in  a  charge  at  the  head  of  his  men,  but  it  was  not 
permitted  to  him  to  go,  and  thus  he  was  denied  the 
reward  which  he  would  have  ranked  above  all  others, 
"  the  great  prize  of  death  in  battle/'  But  he  was  a  pa^ 
triot  in  every  fibre  of  his  being,  and  personal  disap^ 
pointment  in  no  manner  slackened  or  cooled  his  zeal. 
Everything  that  he  could  do  to  forward  the  war,  to 
quicken  preparation,  to  stimulate  patriotism,  to  urge 
on  efficient  action,  was  done.  Day  and  night,  in  season 
and  out  of  season,  he  never  ceased  his  labors.  Although 
prevented  from  going  to  France  himself,  he  gave  to 
the  great  conflict  that  which  was  far  dearer  to  him 
than  his  own  life.  I  cannot  say  that  he  sent  his  four 
sons,  because  they  all  went  at  once,  as  every  one  knew 
that  their  father's  sons  would  go.  Two  have  been  badly 
wounded;  one  was  killed.  He  met  the  blow  with  the 
most  splendid  and  unflinching  courage,  met  it  as 
Siward,  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  receives  in  the 
play  the  news  of  his  son's  death : 

Siw.  Had  he  his  hurts  before  ? 

Ross.  Ay,  on  the  front. 

Siw.  Why,  then,  God's  soldier  be  he  ! 
Had  I  as  many  sons  as  I  have  hairs, 
I  would  not  wish  them  to  a  fairer  death : 
And  so  his  knell  is  knoll'd. 

Among  the  great  tragedies  of  Shakespeare,  and 
there  are  none  greater  in  all  the  literature  of  man, 
"Macbeth"  was  Colonel  Roosevelt's  favorite, and  the 
moving  words  which  I  have  just  quoted  I  am  sure  were 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT         31 

in  his  heart  and  on  his  lips  when  he  faced  with  stern 
resolve  and  self-control  the  anguish  brought  to  him 
by  the  death  of  his  youngest  boy,  killed  in  the  glory 
of  a  brave  and  brilliant  youth. 

He  lived  to  seethe  right  prevail;  he  lived  to  see  civ 
ilization  triumph  over  organized  barbarism ;  and  there 
was  great  joy  in  his  heart.  In  all  his  last  days  the 
thoughts  which  filled  his  mind  were  to  secure  a  peace 
which  should  render  Germany  forever  harmless  and 
advance  the  cause  of  ordered  freedom  in  every  land 
and  among  every  race.  This  occupied  him  to  the  ex 
clusion  of  everything  else,  except  what  he  called  and 
what  we  like  to  call  Americanism.  There  was  no  hour 
down  to  the  end  when  he  would  not  turn  aside  from 
everything  else  to  preach  the  doctrine  of  Americanism, 
of  the  principles  and  the  faith  upon  which  American 
government  rested,  and  which  all  true  Americans 
should  wear  in  their  heart  of  hearts.  He  was  a  great 
patriot,  a  great  man ;  above  all,  a  great  American.  His 
country  was  the  ruling,  mastering  passion  of  his  life 
from  the  beginning  even  unto  the  end. 

So  closes  the  inadequate,  most  incomplete  account 
of  a  life  full  of  work  done  and  crowded  with  achieve 
ment,  brief  in  years  and  prematurely  ended.  The  reci 
tation  of  the  offices  which  he  held  and  of  some  of  the 
deeds  that  he  did  is  but  a  bare,  imperfect  catalogue  into 
which  history  when  we  are  gone  will  breathe  a  last 
ing  life.  Here  to-day  it  is  only  a  background,  and  that 
which  most  concerns  us  now  is  what  the  man  was  of 
whose  deeds  done  it  is  possible  to  make  such  a  list. 
What  a  man  was  is  ever  more  important  than  what 
he  did,  because  it  is  upon  what  he  was  that  all  his 


32          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

achievement  depends  and  his  value  and  meaning  to 
his  fellow  men  must  finally  rest. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  always  believed  that  charao 
ter  was  of  greater  worth  and  moment  than  anything 
else.  He  possessed  abilities  of  the  first  order,  which 
he  was  disposed  to  underrate,  because  he  set  so  much 
greater  store  upon  the  moral  qualities  which  we  bring 
together  under  the  single  word  "  character." 

Let  me  speak  first  of  his  abilities.  He  had  a  powerful, 
well-trained,  ever-active  mind.  He  thought  clearly, 
independently,  and  with  originality  and  imagination. 
These  priceless  gifts  were  sustained  by  an  extraordi 
nary  power  of  acquisition,  joined  to  a  greater  quick 
ness  of  apprehension,  a  greater  swiftness  in  seizing 
upon  the  essence  of  a  question,  than  I  have  ever  hap 
pened  to  see  in  any  other  man.  His  reading  began  with 
natural  history,  then  went  to  general  history,  and 
thence  to  the  whole  field  of  literature.  He  had  a  capac 
ity  for  concentration  which  enabled  him  to  read  with 
remarkable  rapidity  anything  which  he  took  up,  if 
only  for  a  moment,  and  which  separated  him  for  the 
time  being  from  everything  going  on  about  him.  The 
subjects  upon  which  he  was  well  and  widely  informed 
would,  if  enumerated,  fill  a  large  space,  and  to  this 
power  of  acquisition  was  united  not  only  a  tenacious 
but  an  extraordinarily  accurate  memory.  It  was  never 
safe  to  contest  with  him  on  any  question  of  fact  or 
figures,  whether  they  related  to  the  ancient  Assyrians 
or  to  the  present-day  conditions  of  the  tribes  of  central 
Africa,  to  the  Sy racusan  Expedition,  as  told  byThucy- 
dides,  or  to  protective  coloring  in  birds  and  animals. 
He  knew  and  held  details  always  at  command,  but  he 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT         33 

was  not  mastered  by  them.  He  never  failed  to  see  the 
forest  on  account  of  the  trees  or  the  city  on  account 
of  the  houses. 

He  made  himself  a  writer,  not  only  of  occasional 
addresses  and  essays,  but  of  books.  He  had  the  trained 
thoroughness  of  the  historian,  as  he  showed  in  his  his^ 
tory  of  the  \Var  of  i  8 1 2  and  of  the  "  Winning  of  the 
West/'  and  nature  had  endowed  him  with  that  most 
enviable  of  gifts,  the  faculty  of  narrative  and  the  art 
of  the  teller  of  tales.  He  knew  how  to  weigh  evidence 
in  the  historical  scales  and  how  to  depict  character. 
He  learned  to  write  with  great  ease  and  fluency.  He 
was  always  vigorous,  always  energetic,  always  clear 
and  forcible  in  everything  he  wrote  —  nobody  could 
ever  misunderstand  him — and  when  he  allowed  him' 
self  time  and  his  feelings  were  deeply  engaged  he  gave 
to  the  world  many  pages  of  beauty  as  well  as  power, 
not  only  in  thought  but  in  form  and  style.  In  the 
same  way  he  made  himself  a  public  speaker,  and  here 
again,  through  a  practice  probably  unequalled  in 
amount,  he  became  one  of  the  most  effective  in  all  our 
history.  In  speaking,  as  in  writing,  he  was  always  full 
of  force  and  energy;  he  drove  home  his  arguments  and 
never  was  misunderstood.  In  many  of  his  more  care^ 
fully  prepared  addresses  are  to  be  found  passages  of 
impressive  eloquence,  touched  with  imagination  and 
instinct  with  grace  and  feeling. 

He  had  a  large  capacity  for  administration,  clear  ^ 
ness  of  vision,  promptness  in  decision,  and  a  thorough 
apprehension  of  what  constituted  efficient  organiza^ 
tion.  All  the  vast  and  varied  work  which  he  acconv 
plished  could  not  have  been  done  unless  he  had  had 


34         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

most  exceptional  natural  abilities,  but  behind  them, 
most  important  of  all,  was  the  driving  force  of  an  in- 
tense  energy  and  the  ever-present  belief  that  a  man 
could  do  what  he  willed  to  do.  As  he  made  himself 
an  athlete,  a  horseman,  a  good  shot,  a  bold  explorer, 
so  he  made  himself  an  exceptionally  successful  writer 
and  speaker.  Only  a  most  abnormal  energy  would 
have  enabled  him  to  enter  and  conquer  in  so  many 
fields  of  intellectual  achievement.  But  something  more 
than  energy  and  determination  is  needed  for  the  larg- 
est  success,  especially  in  the  world's  high  places.  The 
first  requisite  of  leadership  is  ability  to  lead,  and  that 
ability  Theodore  Roosevelt  possessed  in  full  meas 
ure.  \Vhether  in  a  game  or  in  the  hunting  field,  in  a 
fight  or  in  politics,  he  sought  the  front,  where,  as  Web 
ster  once  remarked,  there  is  always  plenty  of  room  for 
those  who  can  get  there.  His  instinct  was  always  to 
say  "come"  rather  than  "go,"  and  he  had  the  talent 
of  command. 

His  also  was  the  rare  gift  of  arresting  attention 
sharply  and  suddenly,  a  very  precious  attribute,  and 
one  easier  to  illustrate  than  to  describe.  This  arresting 
power  is  like  a  common  experience,  which  we  have  all 
had  on  entering  apicture  gallery,  of  seeing  at  once  and 
before  all  others  a  single  picture  among  the  many  on 
the  walls.  For  a  moment  you  see  nothing  else,  al 
though  you  maybe  surrounded  with  masterpieces.  In 
that  particular  picture  lurks  a  strange,  capturing,  grip' 
ping  fascination  as  impalpable  as  it  is  unmistakable. 
Roosevelt  had  this  same  arresting,  fascinating  qual 
ity.  \Vhether  in  the  Legislature  at  Albany,  the  Civil- 
Service  Commission  at  Washington,  or  the  Police 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT          35 

Commission  in  New  York,  whether  in  the  Spanish 
War  or  on  the  plains  among  the  cowboys,  he  was  al- 
ways  vivid,  at  times  startling,  never  to  be  overlooked. 
Nor  did  this  power  stop  here.  He  not  only  without 
effort  or  intention  drew  the  eager  attention  of  the  peo 
ple  to  himself,  he  could  also  engage  and  fix  their 
thoughts  upon  anything  which  happened  to  interest 
him.  It  might  be  a  man  or  a  book,  reformed  spelling 
or  some  large  historical  question,  his  travelling  library 
or  the  military  preparation  of  the  United  States,  he 
had  but  to  say, "See  how  interesting,  how  important, 
is  this  man  or  this  event,"  and  thousands,  even  mil 
lions,  of  people  would  reply,  "We  never  thought  of 
this  before,  but  it  certainly  is  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing,  most  absorbing  things  in  the  world."  He  touched 
a  subject  and  it  suddenly  began  to  glow  as  when  the 
high-power  electric  current  touches  the  metal  and  the 
white  light  starts  forth  and  dazzles  the  onlooking  eyes. 
We  know  the  air  played  by  the  Pied  Piper  of  Ham- 
elin  no  better:  than  we  know  why  Theodore  Roose 
velt  thus  drew  the  interest  of  men  after  him.  We  only 
know  they  followed  wherever  his  insatiable  activity 
of  mind  invited  them. 

Men  follow  also  most  readily  a  leader  who  is  always 
there  before  them,  clearly  visible  and  just  where  they 
expect  him.  They  are  especially  eager  to  go  forward 
with  a  man  who  never  sounds  a  retreat.  Roosevelt  was 
always  advancing,  always  struggling  to  make  things 
better,  to  carry  some  much-needed  reform,  and  help 
humanity  to  a  larger  chance,  to  a  fairer  condition,  to 
a  happier  life.  Moreover,  he  looked  always  for  an  ethi 
cal  question.  He  was  at  his  best  when  he  was  fighting 


3 6          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  battle  of  right  against  wrong.  He  thought  soundly 
and  wisely  upon  questions  of  expediency  or  of  politi- 
cal  economy,  but  they  did  not  rouse  him  or  bring  him 
the  absorbed  interest  of  the  eternal  conflict  between 
good  and  evil  Yet  he  was  never  impractical,  never 
blinded  by  counsels  of  perfection,  never  seeking  to 
make  the  better  the  enemy  of  the  good.  He  wished  to 
get  the  best,  but  he  would  strive  for  all  that  was  pos- 
sible  even  if  it  fell  short  of  the  highest  at  which  he 
aimed.  He  studied  the  lessons  of  history,  and  did  not 
think  the  past  bad  simply  because  it  was  the  past,  or 
the  new  good  solely  because  it  was  new.  He  sought 
to  try  all  questions  on  their  intrinsic  merits,  and  that 
was  why  he  succeeded  in  advancing,  in  making  gov- 
ernment  and  society  better,  where  others,  who  would 
be  content  with  nothing  less  than  an  abstract  perfec- 
tion,  failed.  He  would  never  compromise  a  principle, 
but  he  was  eminently  tolerant  of  honest  differences 
of  opinion.  He  never  hesitated  to  give  generous  credit 
where  credit  seemed  due,  whether  to  friend  or  oppo 
nent,  and  in  this  way  he  gathered  recruits  and  yet 
never  lost  adherents. 

The  criticism  most  commonly  made  upon  Theo- 
dore  Roosevelt  was  that  he  was  impulsive  and  impetU' 
ous;  that  he  acted  without  thinking.  He  would  have 
been  the  last  to  claim  infallibility.  His  head  did  not 
turn  when  fame  came  to  him  and  choruses  of  admi- 
ration  sounded  in  his  ears,  for  he  was  neither  vain  nor 
credulous.  He  knew  that  he  made  mistakes,  and  never 
hesitated  to  admit  them  to  be  mistakes  and  to  correct 
them  or  put  them  behind  him  when  satisfied  that  they 
were  such.  But  he  wasted  no  time  in  mourning,  ex- 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT         37 

plaining,  or  vainly  regretting  them.  It  is  also  true  that 
the  middle  way  did  not  attract  him.  He  was  apt  to  go 
far,  both  in  praise  and  censure,  although  nobody  could 
analyze  qualities  and  balance  them  justly  in  judging 
men  better  than  he.  He  felt  strongly,  and  as  he  had 
no  concealments  of  any  kind,  he  expressed  himself  in 
like  manner.  But  vehemence  is  not  violence,  nor  is 
earnestness  anger,  which  a  very  wise  man  defined  as  a 
brief  madness.  It  was  all  according  to  his  nature,  just 
as  his  eager  cordiality  in  meeting  men  and  women,  his 
keen  interest  in  other  people's  cares  or  joys,  was  not 
assumed,  as  some  persons  thought  who  did  not  know 
him.  It  was  all  profoundly  natural,  it  was  all  real,  and 
in  that  way  and  in  no  other  was  he  able  to  meet  and 
greet  his  fellow  men.  He  spoke  out  with  the  most  un^ 
restrained  frankness  at  all  times  and  in  all  companies. 
Not  a  day  passed  in  the  Presidency  when  he  was  not 
guilty  of  what  the  trained  diplomatist  would  call  in-* 
discretions.  But  the  frankness  had  its  own  reward. 
There  never  was  a  President  whose  confidence  was  so 
respected  or  with  whom  the  barriers  of  honor  which 
surround  private  conversation  were  more  scrupulously 
observed.  At  the  same  time,  when  the  public  interest 
required,  no  man  could  be  more  wisely  reticent.  He 
was  apt,  it  is  true,  to  act  suddenly  and  decisively,  but 
it  was  a  complete  mistake  to  suppose  that  he  there^ 
fore  acted  without  thought  or  merely  on  a  momentary 
impulse.  When  he  had  made  up  his  mind  he  was  re^ 
solute  and  unchanging,  but  he  made  up  his  mind  only 
after  much  reflection,  and  there  never  has  been  a  Presi^ 
dent  in  the  White  House  who  consulted  not  only 
friends  but  political  opponents  and  men  of  all  kinds 


3  8         THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

and  conditions  more  than  Theodore  Roosevelt.  \Vhen 
he  had  reached  his  conclusion  he  acted  quickly  and 
drove  hard  at  his  object,  and  this  it  was,  probably, 
which  gave  an  impression  that  he  acted  sometimes 
hastily  and  thoughtlessly,  which  was  a  complete  mis- 
apprehension  of  the  man.  His  action  was  emphatic, 
but  emphasis  implies  reflection  not  thoughtlessness. 
One  cannot  even  emphasize  a  word  without  a  process, 
however  slight,  of  mental  differentiation. 

The  feeling  that  he  was  impetuous  and  impulsive 
was  also  due  to  the  fact  that  in  a  sudden,  seemingly 
unexpected  crisis  he  would  act  with  great  rapidity. 
This  happened  when  he  had  been  for  weeks,  perhaps 
for  months,  considering  what  he  should  do  if  such  a 
crisis  arose.  He  always  believed  that  one  of  the  most 
important  elements  of  success,  whether  in  public  or 
in  private  life,  was  to  know  what  one  meant  to  do 
under  given  circumstances.  If  he  saw  the  possibility 
of  perilous  questions  arising,  it  was  his  practice  to 
think  over  carefully  just  how  he  would  act  under  cer 
tain  contingencies.  Many  of  the  contingencies  never 
arose.  Now  and  then  a  contingency  became  an  ac- 
tuality,  and  then  he  was  ready.  He  knew  what  he 
meant  to  do,  he  acted  at  once,  and  some  critics  con 
sidered  him  impetuous,  impulsive,  and,  therefore, 
dangerous,  because  they  did  not  know  that  he  had 
thought  the  question  all  out  beforehand. 

Very  many  people,  powerful  elements  in  the  com 
munity,  regarded  him  at  one  time  as  a  dangerous  rad 
ical,  bent  upon  overthrowing  all  the  safeguards  of  so 
ciety  and  planning  to  tear  out  the  foundations  of  an 
ordered  liberty.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  what  Theodore 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT         39 

Roosevelt  was  trying  to  do  was  to  strengthen  Arner^ 
ican  society  and  American  government  by  demon^ 
strating  to  the  American  people  that  he  was  aiming 
at  a  larger  economic  equality  and  a  more  generous  in> 
dustrial  opportunity  for  all  men,  and  that  any  com^ 
bination  of  capital  or  of  business,  which  threatened 
the  control  of  the  Government  by  the  people  who  made 
it,  was  to  be  curbed  and  resisted,  just  as  he  would  have 
resisted  an  enemy  who  tried  to  take  possession  of  the 
city  of  Washington.  He  had  no  hostility  to  a  man  be^ 
cause  he  had  been  successful  in  business  or  because  he 
had  accumulated  a  fortune.  If  the  man  had  been  hon> 
estly  successful  and  used  his  fortune  wisely  and  be^ 
neficently,  he  was  regarded  by  Theodore  Roosevelt  as 
a  good  citizen.  The  vulgar  hatred  of  wealth  found  no 
place  in  his  heart.  He  had  but  one  standard,  one  test, 
and  that  was  whether  a  man,  rich  or  poor,  was  an  hon^ 
est  man,  a  good  citizen,  and  a  good  American.  He 
tried  men,  whether  they  were  men  of"  big  business" 
or  members  of  a  labor  union,  by  their  deeds,  and  in 
no  other  way.  The  tyranny  of  anarchy  and  disorder, 
such  as  is  now  desolating  Russia,  was  as  hateful  to 
him  as  any  other  tyranny,  whether  it  came  from  an 
autocratic  system  like  that  of  Germany  or  from  the 
misuse  of  organized  capital.  Personally  he  believed  in 
every  man  earning  his  own  living,  and  he  earned  mon^ 
ey  and  was  glad  to  do  so;  but  he  had  no  desire  or  taste 
for  making  money,  and  he  was  entirely  indifferent  to 
it.  The  simplest  of  men  in  his  own  habits,  the  only 
thing  he  really  would  have  liked  to  have  done  with 
ample  wealth  would  have  been  to  give  freely  to  the 
many  good  objects  which  continually  interested  him. 


40          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Theodore  Roosevelt's  power,  however,  and  the 
main  source  of  all  his  achievement,  was  not  in  the  of' 
flees  which  he  held,  for  those  offices  were  to  him  only 
opportunities,  but  in  the  extraordinary  hold  which  he 
established  and  retained  over  great  bodies  of  men.  He 
had  the  largest  personal  following  ever  attained  by  any 
man  in  our  history.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  the  follow^ 
ing  which  comes  from  great  political  office  or  from 
party  candidacy.  There  have  been  many  men  who 
have  held  the  highest  offices  in  our  history  by  the  votes 
of  their  fellow  countrymen  who  have  never  had  any^ 
thing  more  than  a  very  small  personal  following.  By 
personal  following  is  meant  here  that  which  supports 
and  sustains  and  goes  with  a  man  simply  because  he 
is  himself;  a  following  which  does  not  care  whether 
their  leader  and  chief  is  in  office  or  out  of  office,  which 
is  with  him  and  behind  him  because  they,  one  and  all, 
believe  in  him  and  love  him  and  are  ready  to  stand  by 
him  for  the  sole  and  simple  reason  that  they  have  per^ 
feet  faith  that  he  will  lead  them  where  they  wish  and 
where  they  ought  to  go.  This  following  Theodore 
Roosevelt  had,  as  I  have  said,  in  a  larger  degree  than 
any  one  in  our  history,  and  the  fact  that  he  had  it  and 
what  he  did  with  it  for  the  welfare  of  his  fellow  men 
have  given  him  his  great  place  and  his  lasting  fame. 

This  is  not  mere  assertion ;  it  was  demonstrated,  as 
I  have  already  pointed  out,  by  the  vote  of  1 9 1 2,  and 
at  all  times,  from  the  day  of  his  accession  to  the  Presi' 
dency  onward,  there  were  millions  of  people  in  this 
country  ready  to  follow  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  vote 
for  him,  or  do  anything  else  that  he  wanted,  whenever 
he  demanded  their  support  or  raised  his  standard.  It 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT         4,1 

was  this  great  mass  of  support  among  the  people,  and 
which  probably  was  never  larger  than  in  these  last 
years,  that  gave  him  his  immense  influence  upon  pub 
lic  opinion,  and  public  opinion  was  the  weapon  which 
he  used  to  carry  out  all  the  policies  which  he  wished  to 
bring  to  fulfilment  and  to  consolidate  all  the  achieve- 
ments  upon  which  he  had  set  his  heart.  This  extraor 
dinary  popular  strength  was  not  given  to  him  solely 
because  the  people  knew  him  to  be  honest  and  brave, 
because  they  were  certain  that  physical  fear  was  an 
emotion  unknown  to  him,  and  that  his  moral  courage 
equalled  the  physical.  It  was  not  merely  because  they 
thoroughly  believed  him  to  be  sincere.  All  this  knowl 
edge  and  belief,  of  course,  went  to  making  his  popular 
leadership  secure;  but  there  was  much  more  in  it  than 
that,  something  that  went  deeper,  basic  elements  which 
were  not  upon  the  surface  which  were  due  to  qualities 
of  temperament  interwoven  with  his  very  being,  in 
separable  from  him  and  yet  subtle  rather  than  obvi' 
ous  in  their  effects. 

All  men  admire  courage,  and  that  he  possessed  in 
the  highest  degree.  But  he  had  also  something  larger 
and  rarer  than  courage,  in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of 
the  word.  \Vhen  an  assassin  shot  him  at  Milwaukee 
he  was  severely  wounded ;  how  severely  he  could  not 
tell,  but  it  might  well  have  been  mortal.  He  went  on 
to  the  great  meeting  awaiting  him  and  there,  bleed 
ing,  suffering,  ignorant  of  his  fate,  but  still  uncon- 
quered,  made  his  speech  and  went  from  the  stage  to 
the  hospital.  What  bore  him  up  was  the  dauntless 
spirit  which  could  rise  victorious  over  pain  and  dark' 
ness  and  the  unknown  and  meet  the  duty  of  the  hour 


42          THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

as  if  all  were  well.  A  spirit  like  this  awakens  in  all  men 
more  than  admiration,  it  kindles  affection  and  appeals 
to  every  generous  impulse. 

Very  different,  but  equally  compelling,  was  another 
quality.  There  is  nothing  in  human  beings  at  once  so 
sane  and  so  sympathetic  as  a  sense  of  humor.  This  great 
gift  the  good  fairies  conferred  upon  Theodore  Roose^ 
velt  at  his  birth  in  unstinted  measure.  No  man  ever  had 
a  more  abundant  sense  of  humor — joyous,  irrepressi^ 
ble  humor — and  it  never  deserted  him.  Even  at  the 
most  serious  and  even  perilous  moments  if  there  was  a 
gleam  of  humor  anywhere  he  saw  it  and  rejoiced  and 
helped  himself  with  it  over  the  rough  places  and  in 
the  dark  hour.  He  loved  fun,  loved  to  joke  and  chaff, 
and,  what  is  more  uncommon,  greatly  enjoyed  being 
chaffed  himself.  His  ready  smile  and  contagious  laugh 
made  countless  friends  and  saved  him  from  many 
an  enmity.  Even  more  generally  effective  than  his  hu^ 
mor,  and  yet  allied  to  it,  was  the  universal  knowledge 
that  Roosevelt  had  no  secrets  from  the  American  peo' 
pie. 

Yet  another  quality — perhaps  the  most  engaging 
of  all — was  his  homely,  generous  humanity  which 
enabled  him  to  speak  directly  to  the  primitive  instincts 
of  man. 

He  dwelt  with  the  tribes  of  the  marsh  and  moor, 

He  sate  at  the  board  of  kings; 
He  tasted  the  toil  of  the  burdened  slave 

And  the  joy  that  triumph  brings. 
But  whether  to  jungle  or  palace  hall 

Or  white-walled  tent  he  came, 
He  was  brother  to  king  and  soldier  and  slave, 

His  welcome  w~as  the  same. 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT         43 

He  was  very  human  and  intensely  American,  and 
this  knit  a  bond  bet  ween  him  and  the  American  people 
which  nothing  could  ever  break.  And  then  he  had  yet 
one  more  attraction,  not  so  impressive,  perhaps,  as  the 
others,but  none  the  less  very  important  and  very  cap  ti^ 
vating.  He  never  by  any  chance  bored  the  American 
people.  They  might  laugh  at  him  or  laugh  with  him, 
they  might  like  what  he  said  or  dislike  it,  they  might 
agree  with  him  or  disagree  with  him,  but  they  were 
never  wearied  of  him,  and  he  never  failed  to  interest 
them.  He  was  never  heavy,  laborious,  or  dull.  If  he  had 
made  any  effort  to  be  always  interesting  and  entertain^ 
ing  he  would  have  failed  and  been  tiresome.  He  was 
unfailingly  attractive,  because  he  was  always  per^ 
fectly  natural  and  his  own  unconscious  self.  And  so  all 
these  things  combined  to  give  him  his  hold  upon  the 
American  people,  not  only  upon  their  minds,  but  upon 
their  hearts  and  their  instincts,  which  nothing  could 
ever  weaken,  and  which  made  him  one  of  the  most  re^ 
markable,  as  he  was  one  of  the  strongest,  characters  that 
the  history  of  popular  government  can  show.  He  was 
also — and  this  is  very  revealing  and  explanatory,  too, 
of  his  vast  popularity — a  man  of  ideals.  He  did  not  ex^ 
pose  them  daily  on  the  roadside  with  language  flutter^ 
ing  about  them  like  the  Thibetan  who  ties  his  slip  of 
paper  to  the  prayer  wheel  whirling  in  the  wind.  He 
kept  his  ideals  to  himself  until  the  hour  of  fulfilment 
arrived.  Some  of  them  were  the  dreams  of  boyhood, 
from  which  he  never  departed,  and  which  I  have  seen 
him  carry  out  shyly  and  yet  thoroughly  and  with  in^ 
tense  personal  satisfaction. 

He  had  a  touch  of  the  knight  errant  in  his  daily 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

life,  although  he  would  never  have  admitted  it;  but  it 
was  there.  It  was  not  visible  in  the  mediaeval  form  of 
shining  armor  and  dazzling  tournaments,  but  in  the 
never-ceasing  effort  to  help  the  poor  and  the  oppressed, 
to  defend  and  protect  women  and  children,  to  right 
the  wronged  and  succor  the  downtrodden.  Passing  by 
on  the  other  side  was  not  a  mode  of  travel  through 
life  ever  possible  to  him;  andyet  he  was  as  far  distant 
from  the  professional  philanthropist  as  could  well  be 
imagined,  for  all  he  tried  to  do  to  help  his  fellow  men  he 
regarded  as  part  of  the  day's  work  to  be  done  and  not 
talked  about.  No  man  ever  prized  sentiment  or  hated 
sentimentality  more  than  he.  He  preached  unceas 
ingly  the  familiar  morals  which  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  both  family  and  public  life.  The  blood  of  some  an 
cestral  Scotch  covenanter  or  of  some  Dutch  reformed 
preacher  facing  the  tyranny  of  Philip  of  Spain  was  in 
his  veins,  and  with  his  large  opportunities  and  his  vast 
audiences  he  was  always  ready  to  appeal  for  justice  and 
righteousness.  But  his  own  personal  ideals  he  never 
attempted  to  thrust  upon  the  world  until  the  day  came 
when  they  were  to  be  translated  into  the  realities  of 
action. 

\Vhen  the  future  historian  traces  Theodore  Roose 
velt's  extraordinary  career  he  will  find  these  embodied 
ideals  planted  like  milestones  along  the  road  over  which 
he  marched.  They  never  left  him.  His  ideal  of  public 
service  was  to  be  found  in  his  life,  and  as  his  life  drew 
to  its  close  he  had  to  meet  his  ideal  of  sacrifice  face  to  face. 
All  his  sons  went  from  him  to  the  war,  and  one  was 
killed  upon  the  field  of  honor.  Of  all  the  ideals  that  lift 
men  up,  the  hardest  to  fulfil  is  the  ideal  of  sacrifice. 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT         45 

Theodore  Roosevelt  met  it  as  he  had  all  others  and  fiiL 
filled  it  to  the  last  jot  of  its  terrible  demands.  His  coun 
try  asked  the  sacrifice  and  he  gave  it  with  solemn  pride 
and  uncomplaining  lips. 

This  is  not  theplace  to  speak  of  his  private  life,  but 
within  that  sacred  circle  no  man  was  ever  more  blessed 
in  the  utter  devotion  of  a  noble  wife  and  the  passionate 
love  of  his  children.  The  absolute  purity  and  beauty  of 
his  family  life  tell  us  why  the  pride  and  interest  which 
his  fellow  countrymen  felt  in  him  were  always  touched 
with  the  warm  light  of  love.  In  the  home  so  dear  to  him, 
in  his  sleep,  death  came  and — 

So  Valiant- for-Truth  passed  over  and  all  the  trumpets  sounded 
for  him  on  the  other  side. 





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